Review: Leonard Cohen makes old ideas feel new in Vancouver

Francois Marchand, Vancouver Sun11.13.2012

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
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Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen greets his audience from the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen (C) sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen (R) and his musicians on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Wearing his trademark black fedora, Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen sings “Dance Me to the End of Love” to open his set on the stage at Rogers Arena Monday, November 12, 2012 in Vancouver, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

VANCOUVER - With its dark, gospel overtones, Leonard Cohen's latest album Old Ideas deals with the legend's own mortality, acting as a re-assessment of Cohen's own past, burdens, troubles and sorrows.

But although Cohen describes himself as a "lazy bastard living in a suit" on the funerary Going Home, it's a rather spry 78-year-old that graced the stage at Rogers Arena Monday night, delivering a near-three hour concert in two parts that re-explored a wide cross-section of the legend's repertoire.

And forget funerary: Though much of Cohen's material easily lends itself to doom and gloom, the poet/musician has always been a master at peppering his shadowy musings with a grin-inducing wryness and a sardonic sense of humour, something that came easily for the master wordsmith.

Sauntering onto the stage to open with Dance Me to the End of Love, the suit-clad, hat-topped Cohen quickly leaped into The Future, his classic nihilistic vision that still rings true to this day - "I've seen the future, brother, it is murder" - his deep gravelly voice mingling with the harmonies of backup singer and longtime collaborator Sharon Robinson and sisters Hattie and Charley Webb.

"I'd like to stay on the road for another few years mostly because I want to start smoking again when I turn 80," Cohen said early on, thanking the near sold-out crowd. "And I don't want to do it alone."

The first half of the concert was essentially a slightly re-arranged version of recent live incarnations, one essential track coming hot on the heels of the other.

The sound mix was balanced just right to accommodate Cohen, whose vocal power isn't exactly what it used to be, though the soul was still all there.

Cohen would spend much of the evening on his knees as if professing his faith in the power of song, opening Bird on the Wire with his head bowed and his eyes closed, uncovering his head in respect during Mitch Watkins' striking guitar solo and Neil Larsen's stellar display on the Hammond B3.

Some of the arrangements twisted classics upside down.

The doom-laden Everybody Knows took on a distinctly Balkan flavour with guitarist Javier Mas plucking the 12 strings on his archilaud, while Who By Fire took on a Peruvian vibe with harp and violin, Cohen taking a turn on acoustic guitar and Roscoe Beck pulling some amazing tricks on stand-up bass.

Cohen's band was flat-out spectacular all around, flashy without being in-your-face, giving Cohen's words the space they needed. And sometimes the pauses between the words carried as much weight as the lyrics themselves, the man exuding that old timeless kind of spellbinding cool that had the crowd entranced.

"Hey Cohen would you lighten up?" the man said before a breezy Ain't No Cure For Love, and he did more than a few times often grinning as he sang.

The material from Old Ideas fit right in with Cohen's classics, Amen and Come Healing resonating with clarity and grace, Cohen's deep voice almost preacher-like.

Because ultimately many will approach a Cohen performance more as a spiritual experience than a concert, and on that level Cohen certainly delivered, reciting poem A Thousand Kisses Deep to a crowd that held its breath as Cohen spoke of the frailty of love and body.

And just like that Cohen was sauntering off the stage for the intermission, having thanked just about everyone on his crew and his fans for being there.

Pure class.

The second half of the show would be filled with momentous highlights: Tower of Song performed Casio-pop style with Cohen punching the keys on his old synth, Suzanne on the acoustic guitar with Cohen's shadow looming large on the curtains at the back of the stage and virtuoso Alexandru Bublitchi making his instrument weep, Waiting for the Miracle, which benefited from a Mediterranean vibe, the steamy Anyhow ("I'm naked and I'm filthy, and both of us are guilty"), and inevitably Hallelujah, which is oft imitated but that no one can really do the way Cohen does it.

Close to three hours can seem like an eternity in some cases, but with Cohen the evening could've gone on forever, as comfortable as it was to be wrapped in his rapturous embrace.

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